Picking a low-noise op amp is easier than ever, yet somehow harder also. How can this be? Harder – Because there are so many devices to choose from and the noise data is not always presented in the same way. Easier - Because some very clever engineers have developed some really nice visualization t...
2Low-power processors are the rage, becoming more critical as more products go wireless or battery-powered. But what's really needed isn't just an energy-efficient CPU, but rather a low-energy processo...
1While both low-power sensors and wireless networking are now ubiquitous, there are still relatively few examples on the market of low-power wireless sensor networks. This is not for lack of interest –...
1Look to the future, look to the past, look up to a higher system level, and look down to a lower system level – these are all part of the Nine Screens approach. Nine Screens can trigger our creativit...
0During the darkest hours of the design process when deadlines have passed, bugs are running rampant and the light at the end of tunnel is a dimly lit memory, the search for great programmers begins. T...
2Are some people natural born engineers? Does engineering ability run in the family, like artistic or musical talent?Engineering is hot right now, and continues to top the list of highest-paying colleg...
1Principles of Predictive Energy Balancing Predictive Energy Balancing, (PEB), allows immediate, direct feedback in a switched-mode power converter by effectively removing the filter pole from the feed...
1Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the Texas Instruments facility lab and offices in Santa Clara, CA that Bob Pease roamed while at National Semiconductor. Alan Martin, applications engineer and...
1Note: The following is adapted from the book "Electrical Engineering 101, Third Edition" by Darren Ashby (Newnes).[Part one explains how, by understanding unit math, you can solve nearly any problem....
1Embedded system design often requires not only an understanding of the hardware but also of how the software affects and interacts with it. Designing hardware requires a certain engineering paradigm t...
3Mathematical equations aren't just useful — many are quite beautiful. And many scientists admit they are often fond of particular formulas not just for their function, but for their form, and the simp...
2Note: The following is adapted from the book "Electrical Engineering 101, Third Edition" by Darren Ashby (Newnes).Do you remember your engineering introductory course? At most, I’ll venture that you a...
3Part of what makes embedded systems fun for me is that they normally interact with the physical world. The physical world contains real parameters which we measure using transducers, signal conditioni...
2U.S. Navy ship finds digital map error the hard way, and fathers misidentified on Pennsylvania birth certificates Social media is just the latest technological assault on our free time, and on o...
1Sal is a tech blogger in Silicon Valley who (sadly) falls into the stereotype associated with nerds. Yes, he's a Star Trek fan. His glasses are thick and his allergies are thicker. Despite all that, h...
0If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember that it made a peculiar sound. But despite becoming so familiar, it remained a mystery for most of us. What do these sound...
0You wake up with a heavy head. Was it the half dozen glasses of champagne last night or are you getting sick? In your bathroom is a little strip of paper that can tell you for sure. You place it on yo...
1GIFs are more than just entertaining animated loops; they can actually teach us tons of quick and interesting facts. Think about the old textbooks most of us grew up with in the classroom. Each chapte...
1The advances of semiconductor physics are narrowing the chasm that exists between analog and digital circuitry. Although the chasm is shrinking, it is still there. I’m an analog engineer by training....
1A popular saying goes that programmers are machines that turn caffeine into code . And sure enough, ask a random programmer when they do their best work and there’s a high chance they will admit...
1Whether they are part of a large international design team for a Fortune 500 corporation or an agile, Kickstarter-inspired startup, the designers who create tomorrow’s advanced embedded systems will...
0In my previous blog “Where Did I Go Wrong? Funny Mistakes in Electrical Engineering” I discussed some simple, yet devastating things that led to circuit failures. In this post, I’m going to touch on...
1A few months back I was reading Doug Schmidt’s blog, on The Growing Importance of Sustaining Software for the DoD, and he made the claim “although software does not wear out, firmware and hardware b...
1In the past, designing a board to carry digital signals was a straightforward task that did not require much expertise or effort because of the low frequency of these signals. Many of today’s embedd...
1You've undoubtedly seen the news that various fleets of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, which recently went into service, have been temporarily grounded while an apparent problem with some of its battery set...
1This is the first in a series of Did You Know? articles that uncover interesting historical, technical, and IEEE-related factoids. Here, we set the record straight on several misperceptions of technic...
2Researchers at Stanford University claim to have developed the world's first peel-and-stick thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) that don't require any modification of existing processes or materials. The ne...
2he 2013 CES put on by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) will be followed by a partner event, the IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics, ICCE, The latter will be two orders of...
1
